... cardboard or index cards) to use in taking attendance, working on letters and sounds, comparing patterns in words, counting syllables in words, breaking words into sounds (segmenting), and blending ... as we are listing them. I do different things on different days such as having children identify beginning or ending sounds, vowels and middle sounds, patterns we see in the words (e.g., ham, ... try something different. The older students especially seemed intimidated by the idea of talking in class, and making mistakes in front of their younger peers. I decided to let the students show...